审计任期与审计质量:来自中国证券市场的经验证据

本文以中国证券市场上2000年至2002年期间获得标准无保留审计意见的上市公司为样本,使用经过一定调整后的截面Jones模型估计出的公司操纵性应计利润的绝对值作为审计质量的衡量指标,考察了会计师事务所审计任期与审计质量之间的关系。研究发现,在控制了事务所变更、事务所特征、行业成长性、公司规模、经营业绩、资产负债率、上市年龄以及样本所在年度后,审计任期与公司操纵性应计利润的绝对值呈正U型关系,即审计任期与审计质量呈倒U型关系。进一步分析发现,当审计任期小于一定年份(约6年)时,审计任期的增加对审计质量具有正面影响,而当审计任期超过一定年份(约6年)时,审计任期的增加对审计质量具有负面影响。     

事务所审计任期会影响审计质量吗?——来自发布补充更正公告的上市公司的经验证据

本文以中国A股市场上针对2003年至2009年年报发布过补充更正公告的上市公司为研究样本,对事务所任期与审计质量之间的关系进行了重新讨论。与现有文献不同,我们在讨论中引入了审计风险的概念。我们发现,虽然从整体上看,事务所任期越长,审计质量越差。但是,进一步的分析发现,这一现象仅仅存在于涉及到的审计风险相对较低的上市公司中,而对于补充更正内容涉及到的审计风险相对较高的上市公司来说,事务所审计任期对审计质量并没有产生显著影响。我们的分析结果表明,事务所任期对审计质量的影响是有限的。在较高的审计风险水平下,事务所不会因为任期较长而丧失审计独立性。     

审计职业声誉国外研究文献综述

本文就80年代以来的关于审计职业声誉及审计质量的经典著作,以及近四年来会计研究核心期刊的相关文章进行了回顾,主要将它们分为审计职业声誉对审计师和对审计客户的影响两大类.另外,虽然大部分研究将事务所规模作为审计质量代理变量,但仍有部分研究认为审计任期以及审计师与客户公司的隶属关系都对审计质量产生影响.本文也对此类文章进行了回顾.最后,针对已有研究的方法论做了简要的小结和展望.     

审计职业声誉国外研究文献综述

本文就80年代以来的关于审计职业声誉及审计质量的经典著作，以及近四年来会计研究核心期刊的相关文章进行了回顾，主要将它们分为审计职业声誉对审计师和对审计客户的影响两大类。另外，虽然大部分研究将事务所规模作为审计质量代理变量，但仍有部分研究认为审计任期以及审计师与客户公司的隶属关系都对审计质量产生影响。本文也对此誊文章进行了回顾。最后，针对已有研究的方法论做了简要的小结和展望。     

我国会计师事务所轮换制对审计质量的作用浅析

近年来,国内外发生的一系列财务欺诈案件使注册会计师的行业声誉受到了前所未有的打击。人们在剖析和反思注册会计师审计失败的原因时,时常提到的一个问题就是审计任期与审计质量的关系,即随着审计任期的延长,事务所与被审计单位的关系过于密切,从而使注册会计师的独立性被削弱,导致审计质量低下。因此,会计师事务所轮换制作为一种能提高审计质量的制度安排成为学术界和实务界关注的焦点。基于此,本文探讨了会计师事务所轮换制对审计质量的积极作用与消极作用。     

财务报表重述公司审计质量研究

以财务报表重述公司为研究对象,考察财务报表重述公司年报审计质量。结果表明:财务报表重述的幅度对非标审计意见的出具有显著的影响力;初始差错年和报表重述年,注册会计师都能在一定程度上识别上市公司的盈余管理动机,并在审计意见中有所反映;审计师任期和对财务报表重述公司出具非标审计意见之间没有显著的相关性;事务所规模和非标审计意见的相关性并不显著,结论没有支持大事务所更有可能对重述公司出具非标审计意见。     

审计委员会特征与会计师事务所变更的经验研究

本文以会计师事务所变更为视角,探讨具备怎样特征的审计委员会才能有效履行其职责。研究表明:审计委员会的独立性和专业性与会计师事务所变更显著负相关;审计委员会的开会次数与会计师事务所变更没有显著关系,说明审计委员会的存在有助于减少会计师事务所变更。但在对会计师事务所变更的进一步研究中,我们并没有发现会计师事务所变是为了追求更高审计质量的进一步证据,也说明审计委员会对会计师事务所变更的影响仍然有限。这些研究结论为完善我国审计委员会制度提供了经验证据。     

审计委员会与审计总监任期重叠影响公司盈余质量吗

本文以审计委员会和内部审计总监任期重叠为视角,采用2008-2018年上市公司数据,考察两者任期重叠时间长短对公司盈余质量的影响,研究发现:审计委员会和审计总监的任期重叠时间越长,公司盈余质量越高;并且,这一正向关系在审计委员会信息获取成本和公司股权制衡度越高时更显著;进一步研究发现,审计委员会特征、审计总监的财务专长和内部审计部门权威性以及外部审计任期和行业专长对两者关系的影响不显著,但审计总监在内部审计部门工作年限对两者关系则有显著增量影响,且签字会计师变更会削弱任期重叠的的正面作用.本文研究结论为公司内部治理机构之间相互长期合作的重要性和必要性提供了经验证据,对如何完善内部治理和监督具有一定启示作用.     

高管审计背景、盈余管理与异常审计收费

利用2004~2012年中国A股上市公司财务数据,考察高管审计背景对公司盈余管理行为和审计定价决策的影响。研究中,将高管审计背景分为高管审计经历与事务所关联两个维度。研究发现,高管具有审计背景的公司为了实现较低风险水平下的私有收益最大化,有从应计盈余管理转向实施真实盈余管理的倾向,事务所可能采取的策略是增加额外的审计收费以弥补过高的审计风险,而"校友效应"却使事务所显著减少该类公司的审计收费。研究表明,高管审计背景可能会导致公司财务报告信息质量下降、审计风险上升,证实了其对公司财务报告信息质量及事务所审计质量的不利影响。本研究为加强对高管审计背景公司的监管及完善审计师跳槽的"冷却期"政策提供经验证据。     

审计师任期、事务所任期与审计质量

本文选择2007年至2012年沪深A股上市公司为研究对象,使用估计的可操控性应计间接衡量审计质量,来验证强制审计师轮换制度的实施是否起到预期的作用,并探讨了事务所任期与审计质量的关系.通过一系列的实证检验得出,当审计师任期超过5年后,随着审计师任期的增加,审计质量逐渐下降验证了签字会计师5年期强制轮换制度的适当性.另外,也得出在控制审计师任期后,随着事务所任期的延长,审计质量随着下降,为事务所轮换提供了证据.     

会计师事务所规模与审计定价——基于中国本土事务所的经验研究

会计师事务所规模与审计收费之间的关系取决于产品差异化、声誉投资、市场势力等三个因素与规模效应之间何者相对占优。对我国A股上市公司2007～2008年数据检验发现,无论是以业务收入、注册会计师人数还是从业人员人数度量事务所规模,事务所规模与审计收费之间都呈显著的正向关系。这表明,大事务所可以收取更高的审计费用。同时,在我国审计市场,规模效应相对于其他三个因素可能不占优势。     

The interaction effects of firm and partner tenure on audit quality†

This paper investigates the impact of firm and partner tenure on audit quality, where audit quality is proxied by discretionary accruals. We study a sample of Spanish listed companies between 2005 and 2011 and address both the individual and the interaction effects of firm and partner tenure. Our study is motivated by the current debate, particularly intense at the EU level, on the impact of the auditor rotation regime on the quality of auditing. We find that, without considering the interaction effects, firm and partner tenure do not seem to play a relevant role as determinants of audit quality. Importantly, the interaction of firm and partner tenure shows stronger effects on audit quality than both forms of tenure separately considered. Finally, our analysis suggests that audit quality is maximized when medium firm and partner tenures interact. However, results for the interaction variables are sensitive to the accruals estimation method.     

事务所规模、审计行业专长与事务所审计质量传染效应

发生审计失败事务所的审计质量系统性低于未发生审计失败事务所的审计质量,即会计师事务所的审计质量存在传染效应,但该传染效应受到事务所自选择问题的影响;大规模事务所在审计质量传染效应中占据主导地位;事务所行业专长未能抑制审计质量传染效应。     

On the Relationship between Audit Tenure and Fees Paid to the Audit Firm and Audit Quality

Abstract

We investigate the impact of audit firm tenure, partner tenure, audit fees, fees for non-audit services and total fees on audit quality, as measured by discretionary accruals. Our sample consists of Spanish non-financial public companies for the years between 2006 and 2013. Results indicate that audit quality increases with audit firm tenure but decreases with partner tenure. Moreover, the level of fees paid to the audit firm seems to have a negative impact on audit quality, which is mainly driven by fees for audit services. In this regard, we do not observe any significant relationship between fees for non-audit services and audit quality. Our results also show that the negative relationship between either long partner tenures or high fees and audit quality does not occur when the tenure with the audit firm is long. Therefore, long audit firm tenures do not only seem to involve higher audit quality ‘per se’, but also moderate the negative effects of partner tenure and audit fees on audit quality. The results of this study, which are robust to several sensitivity checks, may be relevant for the current debate on auditor rotation and the joint provision of audit and non-audit services.     

时间压力下的注册会计师行为——来自一个全国性事务所的调查证据

审计判断是一个复杂的认知活动,对周围的环境非常敏感。在中国,时间压力作为影响审计绩效的环境因素,其重要性日益上升。目前有关时间压力的有限研究主要是针对外国审计市场背景进行的。通过对我国一个全国性事务所的调查,我们发现,近年来我国注册会计师面临的时间压力越来越大。时间压力阻碍了审计程序的实施,低报审计时间,降低了审计质量。     

CAP Forum on Enron: Former Audit Firm Personnel as CFOs: Effect on Earnings Management*

Corporate hiring of former audit personnel to fill key financial positions is a practice that has attracted attention from the media, the accounting profession, and regulators. The concern is that the former external auditor who now holds a key position with the client may be able to circumvent the audit or exert pressure on the audit team and adversely influence audit quality. We compare a sample of 172 test companies that appointed to the position of chief financial officer (CFO) personnel who are former employees of the companies' auditors, with a control sample of companies that appointed new CFOs who were not affiliated with their auditors. We investigate whether the level of discretionary accruals is greater for the test sample compared with the control sample during the two years following appointment of the CFO. Both univariate and multivariate results for signed discretionary accruals suggest some support for the hypothesis that firms with affiliated CFOs are associated with greater earnings management than firms with unaffiliated CFOs. Furthermore, the results for signed discretionary accruals suggest that the association is stronger for nonpartners who moved from the audit firm to the client with little or no time gap. On average, the results for absolute discretionary accruals do not suggest differences in earnings management between affiliated and unaffiliated CFOs. However, they do indicate some earnings management relative to unaffiliated CFOs by CFOs who had little or no time gap between leaving the audit firm and joining the client firm, although at a weaker level of significance.     

Audit Firm Tenure,Non‐Audit Services,and Internal Assessments of Audit Quality

We use data from internal assessments of audit quality in a Big 4 firm to investigate the impact of audit firm tenure and auditor‐provided non‐audit services (NAS) on audit quality. We find that first‐year audits receive lower assessments of audit quality and that quality improves shortly thereafter and then declines as tenure becomes very long. Partitioning our sample between SEC registrants and private clients, we find that the decline in audit quality in the long tenure range is attributable to audits of private clients. For audits of SEC registrants, the probability of a high quality audit reaches its maximum with very long tenure. We also find that audit fees are discounted for first‐year audits but auditor effort is higher than in subsequent years. We find no association, on average, between total NAS fees and audit quality in the full sample but observe that total NAS fees are positively associated with quality for SEC registrants and negatively associated with quality for privately held clients. Our findings are important for regulatory policies related to audit firm tenure and auditor‐provided NAS.     

会计师事务所的地区竞争优势与审计质量

本文研究会计师事务所的地区竞争优势与审计质量之间的关系。文章以2002—2009年为样本区间,以会计师事务所在某一地区的市场份额来衡量其地区竞争优势,以操纵性应计的绝对值和正向、负向水平衡量审计质量。研究发现,会计师事务所的地区竞争优势越大,操纵性应计的绝对值以及正向应计的水平越低,而会计师事务所的地区竞争优势对于负向应计的影响程度较弱。本文的研究表明,会计师的地区竞争优势越大,审计质量越高。     

Audit Partner Tenure and Independence in a Low Litigation Risk Setting

We investigate whether long audit partner tenures impair auditor independence, as proxied by the opinion of the audit report, with a sample of Spanish companies for the period: 2002–2010. The Spanish audit market constitutes an ideal setting in which to address this issue, as it is characterized by unusually lengthy engagements with the audit firm. The motivation relies, on the one hand, on the current discussion about the necessity to reinforce the independence of auditors and, on the other hand, on the very limited available research at the partner level. The main result is the lack of significant effects of partner tenure on independence. This finding is robust to various checks. Unlike prior research, we also address the joint effects of firm and partner tenure on independence. Results indicate that partner tenure does not compromise independence, even under long or extremely long audit firm tenures. These findings might have some interesting policy implications, in particular for the intense current debate on auditor rotation regimes which is taking place within the European Union.     

审计机关购买社会审计服务决策研究

审计机关购买社会审计服务是基于承接单位所提供的审计服务质量可以达到预期、承接人员可以做到勤勉尽责这两个前提。通过服务购买,审计机关与社会中介机构缔结经济契约,弥补自身审计资源的不足。不同社会中介机构所能提供的审计服务在质量和价格上是有差异的;由于信息不对称,社会中介机构作为审计服务的供给方可能会选择性提供审计业务能力相关信息,审计机关可能无法优选目标而出现逆向选择现象。面对质量和成本双重目标约束,在探索协调路径的基础上,运用层次分析法,根据审计机关购买社会审计服务的特点,构建各指标的层次结构模型,从质量和成本两个维度进行量化分析,提出可行性方案,再进行决策,这种方法可以解决目前审计机关购买社会审计服务中可行性方案量化不足的问题。